Crete man ordered held in beating death of son

A south suburban Crete man accused of fatally beating his 12-year-old mentally disabled foster son was ordered held in lieu of $5 million bail by a Will County judge today.

Fred D. Johnson II, 43, of the 3400 block of Beckwith Lane, appeared in bond court by circuit television in Joliet on charges he was responsible for the July death of Kevin Johnson.

Wearing prison issued, dark blue clothes, Fred Johnson gazed blankly into the camera as the charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery of a child and unlawful restraint were read.

Johnson told Judge Marzell L. Richardson Jr. he would need a public defender to represent him. Little else was discussed during the brief hearing.

Johnson was arrested on Thursday, nearly 10 months after the death of Kevin, a child he and his wife were caring for. According to the charges, between July 15 and July 18, Johnson struck the boy in the head and body, causing his death. Johnson is also charged with criminal neglect of a person with a disability for not taking one of Kevin's brothers to a doctor for medical care.

Kevin died on July 20, two days after he was taken to the hospital unconscious and not breathing. Doctors said the boy suffered bleeding on both sides of his brain, had several old and new wounds, including burns and ligature marks on his wrists, fractured ribs and a broken thumb, investigators with the Department of Children and Family Services told a judge at the time.

Fred Johnson was already being investigated for charges of abuse, officials said at the time.

In addition to Kevin, Johnson was caring for the boy's three brothers and five of his own children. After Kevin's death, all of the children, ranging in age from 2 to 17, were removed from the household.

The incident drew widespread attention after details of the abuse became known and because of the complicated way Kevin and his brothers became foster children to Fred Johnson.

Kevin and his brothers were adopted by an elderly couple from Crete in 2000, after they were removed from their biological parents. The couple cared for the boys, but after Ola and Lester Johnson died, their daughter and son-in-law took custody of the boys.

According to DCFS investigators, on the day he was hospitalized, Kevin had been beaten five times and at one point he had been hit so hard that his body bounced up from the floor.